Present day aircraft brake systems have employed wear pin indicators to measure overall wear of the brake disk stack. As the brake disks wear, the collective axial thickness thereof will decrease. Brake wear is indicated by the length of the pin relative to a reference plate. In a typical arrangement the length of the pin decreases as the brake wears. Such arrangement requires a visual inspection of the pin to determine wear and is inherently imprecise.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,107 to Ralea provides a system for electrically measuring brake wear in a brake actuator assembly. The system includes an electric transducer which detects a change in the thickness of the brake stack in order to provide an indication of brake wear. While this system provides good results and is suitable for many applications, there remains a strong desire to continue to improve such type of system.